Chinese College Students' Perceptions About Global Versus Local Environmental Issues

The authors examined Chinese college students' perceptions of internal (certainty, tangibility, complexity, significance, and danger) and external characteristics (personal knowledge, human responsibility, impact on personal life, and predicted trend) of 9 global and 8 local environmental issues. Subjects (N = 108) demonstrated by completing a survey that they perceived the internal and external characteristics of issues differently on global and local scales, and to a degree those characteristics are related. Educators and communicators should take into account the perceived characteristics of environmental issues and choose effective information sources and teaching methods to improve public understanding of human-induced environmental changes.